Sole Administration And The Impending Transition Mayhem At University of Abuja
By Dr. Tunde S. Kwairanga Interesting days and times lie ahead in the current trajectory of the University of Abuja. The famous 19th-century British politician Lord Acton was right to have said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Indications emerging are that the imposed acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor […]
By Dr. Tunde S. Kwairanga
Interesting days and times lie ahead in the current trajectory of the University of Abuja. The famous 19th-century British politician Lord Acton was right to have said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Indications emerging are that the imposed acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Patricia Manko Lar, is on a shocking cusp of transmuting into the next substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University. This is being mooted to be realised through an initial tenure extension, using the power of incumbency and her yet unclear mandate at the University. Barely one month plus now into her six-month tenure, the Professor from the University of Jos, together with the newly appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, had on assumption of their tour of duty at the University on 11th February 2025, claimed to be on a rescue mission of restoring sanity to the Institution.
However, feelers from sources close to some powerful political, religious, and ex-military top brass, especially in the North, indicate that the acting Vice-Chancellor is looking beyond her given six-month tenure and has initiated contacts and intensive lobbying to actualise her desires. It remains to be seen how Professor Lar’s daring plot will align with either her self-declared mandate of restoring sanity to the University or the political aspirations of some of her newfound allies and associates within the institution. Not a few of the latter lost out in the last race for the topmost position and are still determined to go for it. Also, beyond the confines of the University, it should be interesting to observe the role of the government in the evolving scenario, particularly how the Tinubu Presidency continues to handle university matters in the country, which are ordinarily law and due process-driven.
At the same time, it will be interesting to imagine and gauge the response of the so-called ‘Lagos boys’ to Professor Lar’s political scheme and their approach in the impending titanic battle to ‘take over’ the University. Coalesced around the Minister of Education, Dr. Marufu Alausa, who has never hidden his disdain toward the ousted Vice-Chancellor Professor Aisha Maikudi on account of her ethnic and geopolitical background, this group latched on the post-transition noise emanating from the University of Abuja. It manoeuvred to get the regime change imposed at the institution. An external member of the dissolved Governing Council representing the South-West based in Lagos was the arrowhead of the campaign both within the Council and in the media. The script was for Professor Lar to serve as a ‘placeholder’ and conduct the transition after which an anointed will take over as the substantive Vice-Chancellor after six months. But this seems to be under threat now that other formidable contending forces are at play, not the least being the acting Vice-Chancellor herself on one side and her newfound allies and associates within the University on the other.
It would be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in early February, dissolved the entire Governing Council and removed the newly appointed 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi. In their place, Senator Lanre Tejuoso and Professor Patricia Manko Lar were appointed as the Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of the Governing Council and acting Vice-Chancellor, respectively. The latter’s appointment was for six months, and she would not be eligible to apply for the substantive position. This development was a sequel to relentless noise, especially in the media, over the transition process by which Professor Aisha Maikudi emerged as the new Vice-Chancellor in late December 2024. The government did not adhere to due process and comply with the extant laws of the University in taking its actions. It would seem though that by negating the due process that produced the young and vibrant Vice-Chancellor Aisha Maikudi the government only succeeded in laying a foundation for possible transition mayhem at the University of Abuja. Except this is aborted by the government sensibly seeing reason to reverse itself.
Nonetheless, some professors in the university who were at the forefront of the antagonism against the now dissolved Governing Council and appointment of the ousted Vice-Chancellor welcomed the unlawful government’s action, describing it as a ‘divine intervention’. Operating under the auspices of self-styled G44, they even published an advertorial expressing appreciation for President Tinubu in the Vanguard newspaper on February 18, 2025, while effectively parting ways with both the national and branch chapters of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that condemned the “erosion of the University’s autonomy” by the government. Some of these professors appeared to have formed a strategic alliance with the acting Vice-Chancellor for which a few have been given new appointments under the current interim dispensation. It is a marriage of convenience for the two camps at the moment.
It is within this context that Professor Patricia Lar is allegedly plotting to scheme her way to emerge as the next substantive Vice-Chancellor at the University. This should not be surprising given that the singular reason why the government outlawed sole administration in Nigerian universities as contained in the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003, No. 1 of 2007, was precisely to preclude the scenario being contemplated by the woman. But because the government itself disregarded the extant laws in appointing her as acting Vice-Chancellor it can only encourage her to aspire further. Towards this end, one can hazard a guess that two immediate plans of action are on the table for implementation by her camp. One is to delay and ensure that the transition process for the appointment of a new Vice-Chancelor is not carried out within the remaining months of her tenure as acting Vice-Chancellor. This will necessitate her seeking and securing an extension of tenure for another six months.
Two, to lobby and ensure that the letter conveying the tenure extension grants a waiver for her to be eligible to contest for the substantive position. With this accomplished, she will then be unencumbered and battle-ready for the impending ‘transition war’.
A major indication of her subtle preparation for the pursuit of her thinly veiled agenda is the unfolding administrative changes as manifested by her selection and appointment of staff into various key positions in the institution. Her former student has been appointed the brand-new Dean of Student Affairs and her tribesman is appointed the new Chief Security Officer from outside the University. Interestingly for these two positions, the G44 pressured the acting Vice-Chancellor to effect those changes, even lining up and recommending their candidates but the woman simply acceded to their demand and appointed her persons instead. For someone with now supposedly less than five months in office appointing a new security chief for a one-year tenure is, indeed, curious. Again, the reported creation and appointment into the strange positions of senior special assistants to sideline and take over the duties of the one serving Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic designate is all part of the plan to strengthen her position for the transition ahead. Even some of the newly appointed aides are to be conveniently discarded at the right time, and other personnel chop and changes are to be carried out, once the coast is clear for her participation in the race for the substantive position. Indeed, this is a vivid reminder that power can corrupt its wielder to exercise it without compunction!
To further soften the ground for the acting Vice-Chancellor’s planned entry into the race for the substantive position, a subtle campaign for ‘peace to reign’ in the University community has been commenced by some so-called elders.
The message is for community members to embrace peace and join forces with the sole administration to move the University forward. The acting Vice-chancellor provided the official imprimatur to this at the Congregation meeting held last week when she authorised one such elder to offer advice to members. Curiously, these so-called elders with their intemperate utterances and intrigues, were the brains behind the last ‘transition crisis’ that culminated in the present inglorious state of affairs at the University. It is anybody’s guess whether the community would continue to remain amenable to the crass opportunism and other shenanigans of the so-called elders. To all intent and purposes, a political battle line has been drawn.
Given the vested interest of the triumvirate of the G44, Lagos boys, and the acting Vice-Chancellor’s camp in the leadership of the University of Abuja, the mayhem that may ensue from their inevitable political rivalry and confrontation can only be imagined. The three groups now share a symbiotic relationship in the current crisis of governance and management at the University. The G44 triggered and escalated the post-transition noise over the appointment of Professor Aisha Maikudi as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor. The Lagos boys latched on to the antics of G44 and facilitated the unlawful dismantling of the existing governing bodies resulting in the installation of an unlawful sole administration personified by Professor Patricia Lar. Her appointment as acting Vice-Chancellor was allegedly based on some filial relationships and primordial considerations within the inner circle of the Lagos boys. It was supposed to be a temporary tour of duty for the University of Jos Professor. However, she has now turned to be coveting the position of the Vice-Chancellor in a substantive capacity for which the G44 will never give up and the Lagos boys also never contemplated surrendering to anyone, not the least the placeholder installed by them.
Perhaps the University of Abuja is in for a political showdown of the millennium should these three musketeers go to each other’s political throats. All may be bound by ambition but the chances of any of them realising their political goal is shaky, if not, impossible. The G44 has the solid strength of being the camp of the homeboys, while the acting Vice-Chancellor can rely on the incumbency factor, and her newfound allies and associates. For their part, the Lagos boys can further swing the pendulum to their side while appointing external members of the Governing Council, with the Chairman already coming from their fold. However, all the schemes, plots, and counter-plots are being fashioned or designed based on illegality; and are bound to fail.
The sole administration imposed at the University remains unlawful and cannot be used to birth a legitimate regime change. This much has been acknowledged by the Minister of Education who recently admitted and expressed his regrets to the House of Representatives Committee on Education for misleading President Tinubu on the matter of the University of Abuja. There is also the predicament of how to constitute a lawful full-fledged Governing Council to co-habit and work with an unlawful acting Vice-Chancellor to produce a substantive Vice-Chancellor. This is a serious legal-cum-administrative conundrum that should not have arisen or been allowed to occur in the first place.
That being the case, why is the Minister still unable to facilitate the reversal of the government’s misstep at the University of Abuja as it was swiftly done in the case of the Admiralty University in Delta State? In the latter’s case, the government swiftly restored the Vice-Chancellor appointed by the Governing Council which it earlier revoked. But in the case of the University of Abuja, it is more than a month now and the government is not yet forthcoming. Even after the Minister’s admission of wrongdoing. Is what is good for the goose not good for the gander? Or, is it because Professor Maikudi is by the Minister’s reckoning from the wrong side of the country? Well, irrespective of the personal stance of the operatives, the government is well-advised to do the needful in conformity with the University’s extant laws and autonomy.
Beyond the Minister’s admission of wrongdoing, it is an increasingly nationwide consensus that the current leadership at the University is Abuja is an aberration in need of immediate reversal. To do this, the only viable option is the restoration of the legitimate and popular governing structure and bodies, which were unlawfully removed in February on the reported orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. One can only call on the President acting as a Visitor to the University to reinstate Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi and the dissolved Governing Council to enable the institution to reinvigorate itself, moving forward. Patriotic and conscientious Nigerians expect that this should be done without further delay.
Kwairanga writes from Sultan Maccido Institute for Peace & Legislative Studies, University of Abuja.